6l3 



NATURE 



[October 27, 1923 



son of Osiris, as well as the Divine Cow the function of 

 which wjw to perform those ceremonies which would 

 ensure tlie continued existence of the father. The 

 hipiX)|>otamus, a symbol of the divine midwife, brought 

 about the rebirth of the king whereby he became a 

 god. Immortality wa.s the sole distinctive possession 

 of a god in early limes. 



The use of such vehicles for human transportation 

 to the celestial regions is widespread and is every- 

 where determinative of deity. The whole conception 

 is s 111 Ii a part of a particular com- 



muimy r.xjKTHiK c uiiti ii is incredible that two peoples 

 independently should have adopted its remarkable 

 symbolism. Yet it is found to have spread throughout 

 western Asia and the parts of Europe that came 

 under the influence of Greek civilisation ; India and 

 eastern Asia ; Indonesia and Central America. The 

 general adoption of such a convention affords a 

 striking illustration of the diffusion of culture, and 

 since its origin in Egyptian beliefs is demonstrated, 

 its [irescncf^ in Syria and Mesopotamia, in Asia Minor 

 and Sua and Greece, in India and eastern Asia, 

 in Central America and Peru, is but a measure of the 

 world's cultural debt to Egypt herself. In India 

 the convention exercised an exceptional fascination 

 over the minds of its ancient inhabitants, who, from 

 about three or four centuries B.C. onwards, were 

 accustomed to represent the vehicles of the gods in 

 many different guises. Of these, one of the most inter- 

 esting was the makara, the composite monster regarded 

 as a crocodile but originally nothing more than the 

 Capricorn of the zodiac — the Babylonian combination 

 of antelope and fish. In India,, too, a great variety 

 of the heads of other animals were substituted from 

 time to time for the antelope's, notably the elephant's.* 

 These evidences are but amplifications, on the cultural 

 side, of the formidable array of facts, somatological 

 and cultural, elicited earlier. Craniological evidence 

 from Polynesia, the Malay Archipelago, the Asiatic 

 littoral, and the Pacific coast of Central and South 

 America accords perfectly with the facts concerning 

 the geographical distribution of the practice and 

 technique of mummification, of megalithic monuments, 

 and of ancient mines. Mr. W. J. Perr}' ^ has not only 

 related these two last-mentioned cultural records, but 

 has also explained the motives which impelled small 

 bands of civilised people to wahder and to settle. 



The statement has been made, and repeated as 

 recently as the present year by prominent archaeologists 

 well acquainted with the facts, that the Egyptians 

 were not a sea-going people ; whereas we know from 



• Important evidence provided by the elephant-head in demonstrating 

 the reality ol the diffxision of culture so far as Scotland in the west and 

 America in the east is set forth in correspondence in Nature of Nov. 25, 

 1915. P- 340; Dec. 16, p. 425 ; Jan. 27, 1916, p. 592 ; Feb. 24, p. 703. 



* " The Children of the Sun," 1923, etc. 



NO. 2817, VOL. I 12] 



their literature that they did engage in maritime 

 enterprise, and it is perfectly weU established that 

 they invented shipbuilding and were tl • 

 of the first sea-going ships. It is equalh 

 established that every other people in the histor> 

 of the world who engaged in maritime " ' <! 

 the Egyptian conventions of both sh i 



seamanship, h i^ unreasonable to pretend that the 

 transportation of the elements of early civilisation 

 from Egypt to Syria and Crete and East Africa and 

 Babylonia was not effected by the Egyptians them- 

 selves. In each of those places Egyptian col -• • 

 exploited natural products and planted the . 

 of Egyptian civilisation, which in the course of it.s 

 development acquired certain local peculiarities. But 

 from Crete and Syria and Babylonia secondar>^ diffusions 

 took place in most cases, no doubt without direct 

 Egyptian participation. The recognition of cultural 

 elements of Egyptian inspiration in India by no means 

 involves the claim that either a single Egyptian or a 

 single Egyptian word ever reached that country. 

 The first is necessitated by the facts : the second 

 is an unessential possibility. A Babylonian eleniait 

 colours the southern Indian culture ; an Indian 

 element that of Burma, Siam, and Cambodia. Behind 

 all is the Egyptian origin and inspiration. 



Most of the misunderstanding concerning tin 

 theories has been due to a failure to understand the 

 nature of such secondary' diffusion. It cannot be 

 made too clear that no claim has been advanced on 

 behalf of direct transmission across great distances. 

 The journeys may have been small, and few individuals 

 may have achieved them, but the culture they bore 

 with them was virile, and if degraded by change of 

 hands, by time, and by racial and environmental as 

 well as by merely geographical remoteness, it has not 

 been degraded beyond recognition. 



Glass-making: in England. 



Glass-making in England. By Harry J. Powell. Pp. 

 X + 183. (Cambridge : At the University Press, 

 1923.) 255. net. 



ANY one who takes the trouble to look through 

 a catalogue of works in English dealing with 

 the subject of glass will be struck with its poverty. 

 For the most part, books on glass have been written by 

 collectors and admirers of glass for other collectors and 

 admirers, or by antiquarians and artists interested in 

 stained glass. The number of books written by those 

 intimately connected with the manufacture of glass, 

 however, has been remarkably few. Since 1849, when 

 Apsley Pellatt wrote his " Curiosities of Glass Making," 

 giving an account of the processes of making all kinds 



